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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Breakfast #70: Pimiento de Padrón and Pimenton Egg on Toast

Don’t you love pleasant surprises? Like that time during the Christmas season
that your husband came home with a whole leg of ham? Or when your mom-in-law gifted you with that sweet
necklace that was just your style? Or
when you found out that a fabulous boulangerie was going to open beside the
grocery you regularly visit? Or when you
realized you had one year off from thinking about “big school”?

Or the time you found these peppers in your little
neighborhood market?

It was a pleasant Saturday morning when I spied these
familiar small green peppers at the weekend market I like to visit. I reach my hand out tentatively. Could it be?
Those Padrón peppers I so loved from Spain? The cardboard sign certainly said so. I asked the lady in the stall and she
confirmed that they indeed were and that they were grown in Tagaytay. Tagaytay!
I could have my pimientos de Padrón and eat local at the same time? It didn’t take much more to pile some into my
market bag.

Pimientos de Padrón are grown in the Galician region in
Spain. They are also the only green
peppers (barring green peppers used for their heat…like jalapeños and our sili pang-sigang) I will eat. They are mild
and sweet and deliciously addicting.
What is most exciting about them though, and perhaps what makes them
most alluring, is that a small percentage of them are not mild at all. So, say, for every 10 sweet peppers, you may
(or may not!) get one or two that are scorching. Fun right?
I think so!

Or, if you want to start your day exceptionally well, you
can have them like this for breakfast.

Pimiento de Padrón and Pimenton Egg on Toast

4 tablespoons olive oil

5 pimientos de Padrón (padrón peppers)

1 egg

1/4 Pimenton de la Vera

1 slice of toast

Sea salt

- Heat a skillet to high heat.Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil to the
pan.When this is hot add the peppers,
making sure they are in one layer.Be
careful as they may spit. Don't fret, nothing a
well-brandished splatter guard and caution can’t fix.

- Fry the peppers in the oil until they are brown and
blistered in most places.Remove from
the pan and immediately sprinkle with sea salt while hot.

- While the peppers are frying, or after in the same pan,
cook your egg.Heat the remaining tablespoon
of olive oil in the pan and, when the oil is hot, add the egg.When the egg starts to set, sprinkle the
pimenton, on the yolk, whites, and surrounding oil.Swirl the pan around so the orange oil gets
on the egg.Sprinkle the yolk with salt
and cook to your desired doneness.I
like mine runny…and when you’ve taste a padrón pepper dunked in pimenton-laced
runny yolk so will you.

- Toast your bread and assemble all your ingredients on a
plate, any which way you want.

There is no right or wrong way to assemble and eat
this.Pile the peppers and the egg on
the toast and dive in messily or arrange each component separately and eat daintily
with a fork and knife.It’s breakfast;
there are no wrong answers!What you
should try to stick to though is to eat this warm, as soon as it is ready, to
get it at its best.

I've made Pimenton fried egg before and it remains one of my favorite ways to have fried egg. It's the perfect type of egg to have with these peppers, but also perfect on its own, sopped up with a good piece of toast. And speaking of toast, this dish is best with a nice hearty piece, the type that comes from a craggy, ornery-looking loaf. This particular one came from the afore-mentioned boulangerie that I was so excited had opened near me. But this is personal preference and please go ahead and use your own favorite.

I am beyond excited that someone has started selling these peppers at my local market, and even more so that someone has begun growing them
locally.I am just crossing all my
fingers that supply is steady.Intrepid
farmers, I support your attempts to grow these peppers, and promise to always
buy part of your crop!Now, I just have
to keep my fingers likewise crossed that the crafty restaurants don’t swoop in
and finish the supply (as I suspect they did this weekend)!

Wishing us all pleasant surprises at every corner…and the
clarity and wisdom to recognize them!

***In other news Cook Out 2 Help Out Part 2, the
continuing fundraiser to help rebuild areas stricken by typhoon Yolanda, will
be on next weekend, January 24, 25 and 26, 12 noon – 10PM, at the Powerplant
Mall.Eat burgers and help out!

Oh my gosh, this is just delicious. And your photo is awesome. I never thought to make this. Now you just inspired me -- I'll have this breakfast, lunch or dinner! Thanks for sharing and hope you're feeling better now, Joey!